The agreement to restore calm is welcome. Pity it won’t last.
THE FIGHTING lasted less than two weeks, but there was no shortage of explosions. By the end Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, had fired some 4,000 rockets at Israel.
Most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defences. Israel responded with hundreds of air strikes on Gaza, a cramped enclave ruled by Hamas, which had no shield.
More than 200 people were killed, all but 12 of them Palestinian. The battle began to wind down on May 20th; after nightfall Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire. Assuming that calm returns, who knows how long it will last?
Fighting between Israel and Hamas has become almost routine. Since the Islamist group grabbed control of Gaza in 2007, the two sides have fought four wars and several smaller battles, costing thousands of lives (again, mostly Palestinian).
The spark for the latest outbreak came in Jerusalem—but were it not Jerusalem, it would have been some other cause. Israel and Hamas are stuck in a perpetual crisis, trapped by the logic of war, which dictates that they keep going through the same motions.
source economist.com
分類